Comparing PowerPoint 2007 vs OpenOffice 3.1.0 vs GoOo 3.1-10.
There is one crucial feature I use in PowerPoint that has prevented me from switching to OpenOffice: the Presenter View.
Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint 2007 has further improved the presenter view from previous versions: it can now no longer hogs your primary display and can even be resized. This allows for even easier access to the main program window while a slideshow is running.
Why would you want that you may ask? Realtime edits. You can edit your slideshow while you are showing it. From adding new slides, rearranging slides, and editing slide contents – changes are updated immediately.
Editing the current live slide is also possible – with changes appearing AS YOU TYPE. It is also very easy to annotate slides, with various pen and marking tools.
OpenOffice Impress
OOo Impress does not currently include a presentation manager of any description. Well at least that’s what I can tell from the documentation and options. Worse still, this version of OOo crashes every time I attempt to run a slideshow. So at this point I gave up and decided to look at an alternative build named Go-oo.
There is a Presenter Screen plugin for OOo 3.0, but had no luck getting it to work with current builds of OOo.
Go-oo Impress
Go-oo Impress already includes the Presenter Console plugin so I was finally able to test it. Lets see how it compares to PowerPoint 2007.
| PowerPoint | OpenOffice | |
|---|---|---|
| Presenter Views | Single view with resizable panes: Slide scroller, Notes, and Current slide | Pre-set views: Notes/Slides/Current Slide |
| Presenter Window | Resizable | Locked Fullscreen |
| Live Edit | Yes, changes are immediate | No, program interface completely locked |
| Go-to Slide | Yes | No |
| Annotation | Yes, Pens, Hi-lighters, etc | No |
| Blank screen | Yes, Black/white screen options | No |
Both contain a timer and simple back/forward navigation.
This comparison reflects the features I use regularly in PowerPoint, and as you can see Impress is still rather unimpressive in this regard. I have hope that OpenOffice will continue to improve, but by the time it catches up to where PowerPoint is today the goalposts will have already moved.